SEVERN TRENT’S £60 million operations centre has been officially opened.

The building is believed to be the greenest in Europe, and last night more than 250 people came to see how it measured up.

And despite being built in just two years, the seven-storey facility wowed some of Coventry’s key decision-makers.

Speakers at last night’s opening were full of praise for the flagship centre, which boasts eco-friendly features such as thermal adaptive cooling, photovoltaic and solar panels, biomass boilers and rainwater harvesting.

Some 1,700 people will work in the building.

Severn Trent chief executive Tony Wray said: “This building is really rather unique, but it’s not just a fantastic construction. It was borne out of a company facing up to and really thinking hard about what we are about, what we stand for.

“I have been in this building a month now and there is not a thing I would change.

“The people who come to this building do so with a smile on their face.”

Richard Dakin, director of BAM Construction, the firm that built the Severn Trent centre, described it as “the most significant commercial development in Coventry for over a decade”.

And Martin Reeves, the chief executive of Coventry City Council, said that the city had to use buildings like Severn Trent, in St John’s Street, as a springboard to the future.